Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

In the meeting hall of the Tang Palace, Lu Bu was summoning civil and military officials to discuss the recovery of Liangzhou.

"The King is finally going to attack Liangzhou!"

Upon hearing this news, Ma Chao was the most excited. He asked excitedly, "When will the troops be dispatched? Who will lead them? They must be calling me to the meeting, right?"

"We'll talk about this later!"

Lu Bu looked at him speechlessly and signaled his servant to open the map of Liangzhou hanging on the wall behind him.

Those present today included Jia Xu and Yan Xing who had just been transferred back from Qingzhou, Ma Chao and Hua Xiong who had escorted the carriage back earlier, as well as Taishi Ci, the commander of the Yongzhou army, and Xin Ping, the military advisor, who were specially called by Lu Bu, Zhang He, the commander of Hedong, Cao Xing, the commander of Hongnong, Duan Wei who had been organizing refugees to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land in Yongzhou, Zhang Ji who was stationed in Hongnong, Du Fei, the commander of the Flying Eagle Team headquarters, and several staff members of the Tang Palace.

Many of these people were from Liangzhou, including former subordinates of Dong Zhuo, Ma Teng, and Han Sui. They had some understanding of the geography and humanities of Liangzhou. However, since the deaths of Ma Teng and Han Sui, the separatist forces there had undergone tremendous changes in the past two years.

"Let's talk about the situation in Liang Province first!" Seeing that everyone was present, Lu Bu signaled Du Fei to speak.

Although Du Fei does not lead troops, he is in charge of the Flying Eagle Teams across the country. In addition to organizing the information sent from the central government, he is also responsible for the deployment of the Flying Eagle Team. After the workload increased in the past two years, Zhang Mo assigned him subordinates and made it an independent department with an official title equivalent to that of the commander of each military region.

Du Fei walked over to the map and said, "There are currently seven major separatist forces in Liang Province. The first is Cheng Gongying, a former subordinate of Han Sui, who occupies Jincheng County. The second is Song Jian, who proclaimed himself the King of Heshou Pinghan, who occupies the western part of Longxi County. The third is that Ma Teng's former sphere of influence has been split, with Yang Qiu occupying Anding County and Liang Xing occupying Beidi County. The area around Jicheng in Hanyang County is occupied by the local powerful families Jiang, Yang, Yin, and Zhao. There are also two other Di people forces. One is Agui who occupies the area around Lueyang in Hanyang County, and the other is Yang Qianwan who occupies Wudu County in the south."

"As for the four counties of Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Zhangye, and Wuwei on the other side, they are ruled by Qiang and Hu generals. Among them, there are still many Xiongnu people scattered in the northern part of Beidi County and Wuwei County."

Having said so much, the summary in one sentence is that Liangzhou has completely become a mess, with countless separatist forces of all sizes. What is even more complicated is the population composition here, including Qiang, Di, Xiongnu, and Han people, showing a distribution characteristic of "large mixed residence and small concentrated residence".

After introducing the forces in various places, Du Fei briefly introduced the background of the leaders of these seven forces to everyone. He mainly spoke to Taishi Ci and others. Jia Xu, Ma Chao and others were originally from Liangzhou and had some understanding of those people.

After Du Fei finished speaking, Ma Chao was the first to speak up. "It sounds complicated, but I think a real fight wouldn't be difficult. Of these seven factions, only Cheng Gongying and Song Jian probably won't surrender. The others can be tamed through negotiation. Yang Qiu is an old subordinate of my father, and my cousin Ma Dai serves under him. As long as I return, he'll definitely surrender. As for Agui and Yang Qianwan, these Di people have always respected my father, so it won't be difficult to persuade them to surrender. Liang Xing is an old subordinate of Dong Zhuo. Our king was once Dong Zhuo's most powerful subordinate. How dare he refuse to surrender? As for the great families of Jicheng, it shouldn't be too difficult for Mr. Wenhe to persuade them to surrender. In the end, Cheng Gongying and Song Jian may be the only ones who will have to resort to force."

Hua Xiong nodded in agreement, "Meng Qi is right!"

"What do you think, Mr. Wenhe?" Lu Bu looked at Jia Xu.

Jia Xu twirled his beard and shook his head, "It's not that simple!"

He explained, "Like the Xiongnu, the Qiang and Di peoples live in tribes, and their local self-government relies primarily on clan power. Even before the unrest in Liang Province, the Han central government could only mobilize forces at the county level. The Qiang are martial, and each tribe and clan retains a strong military capability. Even if the king temporarily pacifies the situation with force, they will rebel at any time if your policies don't satisfy them."

"Liang Province borders Bing Province's Shangjun and the Hetao region. Many of the Xiongnu who fled during the last campaign against the Southern Xiongnu moved here. Your Majesty's plan to split up the Southern Xiongnu tribes is clearly not something the Qiang and Hu people of Liang Province will agree to. Therefore, even if Yang Qiu, Liang Xing, and the others were willing to submit to Your Majesty, their Qiang generals would not agree, and Agui and Yang Qianwan would certainly not surrender.

Then there's Cheng Gongying, who was utterly loyal to Han Sui, who was eliminated by the king. He wouldn't surrender unless he was desperate. And Song Jian, on the other hand, occupied the "Heshou" region centered on the Daxia River, solely focused on preserving his own little world. He never participated in the struggle for Guanzhong, nor would he allow outsiders to interfere in Heshou.

"So, if Your Majesty intends to split Liang Province, they will definitely resist to the end. If you don't, a natural disaster or a change in the situation in the Central Plains could cause them to rebel again. I think it's more accurate to say that the Han Dynasty was brought down by the Liang Province rebels than by the Yellow Turbans."

Lu Bu deeply agreed with this statement. In those days, Liang Province had been in chaos many times, and Huangfu Song, Dong Zhuo and others had tried to suppress the rebellions several times but failed. The central government's finances were also dragged down. Later, Emperor Ling became too ill and simply gave up his rule over Liang Province completely.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion was put down early, but the Liang Province Rebellion has not been resolved yet.

If the Tang Dynasty were to march south to fight in the future, not to mention being defeated, once the war was stalemate, Cao Cao would send people to Liangzhou in the name of the Han Emperor to stir up trouble, and they might rebel again.

"So, we still have to send a large army to defeat them so that they have no power to resist!" Lu Bu concluded.

The previous killing of Ma Teng and Han Sui only greatly weakened the military strength of the Liangzhou warlords and divided them into small warlords. It would take some effort to finally make them surrender completely.

Jia Xu nodded. "If we only want to quell the superficial rebellion, sending 5,000 troops and, along with what Meng Qi just said, recruiting the Liangzhou warlords to serve us, we can easily quell Cheng Gongying and Song Jian. But if we want to completely address the root cause, we must use a powerful army to sweep across the land. At least 30,000 troops are needed."

After hearing this, Xun Chen couldn't help but think of what his brother had said before, 'The King of Tang's journey seemed smooth, but in fact, every step was difficult. Every time he conquered a place, he had to stop and compete with the local nobles in a battle of wits and courage.' Isn't this the situation in Liangzhou now?

If it were Cao's army, the situation would be settled as long as those people could surrender. However, the king and princess obviously did not want to just quell the superficial rebellion. What they wanted was a Liangzhou that belonged completely to the Tang Dynasty, not a Liangzhou that might rebel again at any time. Not only did they have to fight wits and courage with the Liangzhou gentry, but there were also so many Qiang and Hu tribes to deal with. Liangzhou was like a combination of Jizhou and the Southern Xiongnu, and it was indeed not that simple.

After learning the lesson of the rebellion of the Jizhou gentry, Xun Chen felt that the Tang Dynasty's future expansion strategy must be to conquer and govern one place at a time, so as not to leave any hidden dangers in the rear.

Zhang Mo sighed, "The food and fodder I borrowed from the people of Bingzhou and Sizhou this year hasn't been returned yet. I originally wanted to exempt Bingzhou and Sizhou from taxes for a year, but Jizhou was just pacified, so it's a bit difficult!"

Hearing that they were not planning to fight anymore, Ma Chao couldn't help but get anxious. "Can't we just appease them first and then slowly reform the system later?"

"That would require another offensive, which would consume even more military and financial resources than resolving the issue all at once!"

Ma Chao hung his head. "Then how long do we have to wait? In Qingzhou, after the rainy season is over, do we have to go fight Kong Rong as well? Then we'll have no food left. Our territory is getting bigger and bigger, but why is the food shortage getting worse and worse?"

Jia Xu said, "Ever since Your Majesty occupied Bingzhou, the war has been almost non-stop. It was only because Your Majesty spent so much money promoting the curved plow and building water wheels and canals that saved a lot of labor. She also used composting and rice seedling cultivation to increase grain production. Otherwise, the Tang Empire would have been defeated long ago."

"Let's fight to support the war!" Zhang Mo said after some deliberation. "Although Liangzhou's land is barren, it connects to the Western Regions and is a key point on the Silk Road. There are many wealthy and powerful families there. Your Majesty can send a large army there to recruit some of these nobles and use them for our purposes. If the Qiang and Di tribes are willing to accept the division of their tribes, then so be it. If not, we can push them all the way through and plunder their food and fodder to feed the army. As long as we can reach Jincheng and destroy Cheng Gongying, we can slowly deal with the scattered Qiang and Hu tribes in the four counties of Hexi later."